Paul Butterfield (December 17, 1942 – May 4, 1987) was an American
blues vocalist, harmonica player who gained international recognition in
part, as one of the early acts performing during the Summer of Love, in
Woodstock, New York. Having formed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band,
Butterfield and his band continued to perform with hit songs along with
the release of their eponymous debut album, The Paul Butterfield Blues
Band, they released hit songs, as with "Born In Chicago".

CareerThe
son of a lawyer, Paul Butterfield was born and raised in Chicago's Hyde
Park neighborhood. After studying classical flute as a teenager, he
developed a love for the blues harmonica, and hooked up with white,
blues-loving, University of Chicago physics student Elvin Bishop (later
of "Fooled Around and Fell In Love" fame). The pair started hanging
around black blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and
Junior Wells. Butterfield and Bishop soon formed a band with Jerome
Arnold and Sam Lay (both of Howlin' Wolf's band). In 1963, a watershed
event in introducing blues to a white audience in Chicago occurred when
this racially mixed ensemble was made the house band at Big John's, a
folk music club in the Old Town district on Chicago's north side.
Butterfield was still underage (as was guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who
was already working there in his own band).

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was signed to Elektra Records after
adding Bloomfield as lead guitarist. Their original debut album was
scrapped, then re-recorded after the addition of organist Mark Naftalin.Some
of the discarded tracks may have appeared on the "What's Shakin'" LP
shared with the Lovin' Spoonful. Finally, their self-titled debut, The
Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was released in 1965.

At the Newport Folk Festival of 1965, Bob Dylan closed the event with
the help of Butterfield's band (without Butterfield himself, however), a
move considered controversial at the time by much of the folk music
establishment.

After the release of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Lay
accidentally shot himself (he subsequently recovered and played drums
for Muddy Waters and James Cotton among others) and Billy Davenport took
over on drums. The Butterfield Band's second album, East-West (1966)
reflected the music scene's interest in sitar great Ravi Shankar and
other Eastern musicians. Although only moderately successful
commercially, it was also critically acclaimed.

These two albums are generally considered to be widely influential.
Butterfield's band helped to introduce modern 'Chicago-style' blues to
mainstream white audiences, along with bands like Cream. In addition,
one of the roots of psychedelic (acid) rock music is the fusion of
Eastern and Western music styles as in Butterfield's East-West.

At the height of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's success, Mike
Bloomfield quit the band and formed The Electric Flag with
Nick
Gravenites, and Bishop began playing lead guitar on The Resurrection of
Pigboy Crabshaw (1967). The album showed that Butterfield was moving to
another musical direction, with a horn section and a soulful, R&B
influenced sound. The album included David Sanborn, Brother Gene
Dinwiddie, Bugsy Maugh and Phil Wilson, and proved to be the last of the
Butterfield band's commercial successes.

In
the same year, the Monterey International Pop Festival would showcase
The Butterfield Blues Band, along with The Electric Flag, Ravi Shankar,
and many others.

With Rick Danko. Woodstock Reunion, 9/7/79After 1968's release In My
Own Dream, both Bishop and Naftalin left at the end of the year. Billy
Davenport and new guitarist Buzzy Feiten joined the band on its 1969
release Keep On Moving which was received coolly by the music press.
Though the Butterfield band was floundering commercially, it was still
popular enough to play at the Woodstock Festival — although their
performance was not included in the resulting Woodstock film. In 1969
Butterfield also took part in a live concert at Chicago's Auditoirum
Theater and subsequent recording session organized by record producer
Norman Dayron, featuring Muddy Waters backed by
Otis Spann, Michael
Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Donald "Duck" Dunn,
Paul Oscher, and Buddy Miles,
which was recorded and released as Fathers And Sons on Chess Records.

Following the releases of Live and Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smiling
in 1970, Butterfield broke up the band and returned to Woodstock, New
York. He formed a new group including guitarist Amos Garrett,
Geoff Muldaur,
Maria Muldaur, pianist Ronnie Barron and bassist Billy Rich and
named the ensemble as 'Better Days'. This group released Paul
Butterfield's Better Days and It All Comes Back in 1972 and 1973
respectively. Although neither were commercially successful, both albums
were received well by critics.

In 1976, Butterfield performed at The Band's final concert, The Last
Waltz. Together with The Band he performed the song Mystery Train.

The late 1970s and early 1980s saw Butterfield as a solo act and a
session musician, doing occasional television appearances and releasing
a couple of albums. He also toured as a duo with Rick Danko, formerly of
The Band, with whom he performed for the last time in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He also toured with another member of The Band, Levon
Helm, as a member of Helm's "RCO All Stars", which also included most of
the members of Booker T and the MGs, in 1977. In 1986 Butterfield
released his final studio album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides
Again.

Paul Butterfield died in his home in North Hollywood, California, in
May 1987 from a heart attack brought on by years of drug addiction and
alcoholism, just one week after his final concert.

Harmonica styleButterfield played and endorsed (as noted in the liner notes
for his first album) Hohner harmonicas, in particular the diatonic
ten-hole 'Marine Band' model. He played using an unconventional
technique, holding the harmonica upside-down (with the low notes to the
righthand side). His primary playing style was in the second position,
also known as cross-harp, but he also was adept in the third position,
notably on the track 'East-West' from the album of the same name, and
the track 'Highway 28' from the "Better Days" album. Seldom venturing
higher than the sixth hole on the harmonica, Butterfield nevertheless
managed to create a variety of original sounds and melodic runs. His
live tonal stylings were accomplished using a Shure 545 Unidyne III
hand-held microphone connected to one or more Fender amplifiers, often
then additionally boosted through the venue's public address (PA)
system. This allowed Butterfield to achieve the same extremes of volume
as the various notable sidemen in his band.

Butterfield also at times played a mixture of acoustic and amplified
style by playing into a microphone mounted on a stand, allowing him to
perform on the harmonica using both hands to get a muted, Wah-wah
effect, as well as various vibratos. This was usually done on a quieter,
slower tune.